Friday, January 20, 2012

Anybody Want a Peanut?: Cousins of Clouds

I'm not a big poetry lover, so the Cybils Poetry category is a tough sell for me.  My children hate poems with a burning passion, so even more so.  Usually I can talk my younger son into sharing a poem a night with me -- I find children's poems work a lot better if read aloud, and reading to an audience brings some lines alive.  Occasionally something wins our heart -- we all fell in love with last year's winner, Mirror Mirror.

Tracie Vaughn Zimmer's Cousins of Clouds: Elephant Poems did not repeat that magic.  Although some of the poems were informative, and I did enjoy the factual blurbs that accompanied each poem, nothing really grabbed our attention.  P started dragging his feet about showing up for even a single poem.  We did appreciate the "This Is Just To Say" poem, but more because of the concept than the execution.  A few phrases shone through, but most of these poems were wasted on me.

"Memory"

She detours through brush
to caress the sun-bleached bones
of her lost sister.

(my favorite)

4 comments:

teacherninja said...

Yeah, sounds like a tough sell all right. But man oh man is Mirror, Mirror good. So much fun!

Unknown said...

I'm not a big poetry person either, as much as I've tried to be over the years. (In fact, that's what kept me away from novels in verse for so long.) Glad to know I'm not alone.

And I love your post title, BTW. :)

Unknown said...

I am catching up on your blog...and as your sister I have to say that your 'favorite' lines here are a bit disturbing!

Beth said...

Hey, if you died it would be deeply upsetting. I'd wander by your grave frequently and be sad and everything.